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Published:
January 14, 2019

Nikon D3500 For Dummies

Overview

Use your Nikon D3500 camera like the pros.

Capturing frame-worthy photos is no easy feat — until now! Inside, author Julie King shares her experience as a professional photographer and photography teacher to help you get picture-perfect landscapes, portraits, action shots, and more with your Nikon D3500 digital SLR camera.

It takes more than a good eye and an amazing camera to get shots like the pros. With the help of Nikon D3500 For Dummies, you’ll find all the expert advice and know-how you need to unlock your camera’s capabilities to their fullest potential.

From working with the basics of lighting and exposure to making sense of your camera’s fanciest features, you’ll be snapping professional-grade photos in a flash!

  • Learn the five essential options for shooting quality photos
  • Understand the settings that control exposure
  • Take charge of color and focus features
  • Put your skills together to shoot portraits, close-ups, and action shots

Whether you’re shooting in automatic mode, scene mode, or manual mode, you’ll get all the guidance you need to take photos you’ll be proud to share.

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About The Author

Julie Adair King is a veteran educator and bestselling author in the field of digital photography. Through her books including Digital Photography For Dummies and several For Dummies guides to dSLR cameras, she has helped readers to explore the joy of photography.

Sample Chapters

nikon d3500 for dummies

CHEAT SHEET

For times when you don't have access to your copy of Nikon D3500 For Dummies, this Cheat Sheet offers a handy reference guide. It offers a map to the camera’s exterior controls along with basic information about exposure modes and the functions played by each button, dial, and switch.Controls on your Nikon D3500 CameraIf you’re not familiar with the Nikon D3500 camera, here’s a quick guide to its buttons, dials, and other external controls.

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Consider the following information about your Nikon D3500 to be the literary equivalent of the end of a late-night infomercial — the part where the host exclaims, “But wait! There’s more!” The features covered here aren’t the sort that drive people to choose one Nikon over another, and they may come in handy only on certain occasions.
In the Nikon D3500’s P, S, and A exposure modes, you have some input over exposure: In P mode, you can rotate the Command dial to choose from different combinations of aperture and shutter speed; in S mode, you can dial in the shutter speed; and in A mode, you can select the aperture setting.But because these are semiautomatic modes, the Nikon D3500 ultimately controls the final exposure.
The most important thing to remember about autofocusing is that how the Nikon D3500 sets focus is determined by the two settings, Focus mode and AF-area mode. Here’s the short story for autofocusing your Nikon D3500: Focus mode: This setting determines whether the camera uses automatic or manual focusing. In some exposure modes, the Focus mode setting offers you a choice of autofocusing options: You can set the camera to lock focus when you press the shutter button halfway; to adjust focus continually up to the moment you depress the button fully to take the picture; or to decide for you which option is best.
Providing specific Nikon capture settings for landscape photography is tricky because there’s no single best approach to capturing a beautiful stretch of countryside, a city skyline, or another vast subject. Most people prefer using a wide-angle lens, for example, to incorporate a large area of the landscape into the scene, but if you're far away from your subject, you may like the results you get from a using a telephoto or medium-angle lens with your Nikon D3500 (learn more about lenses for your Nikon D3500).
For times when you don't have access to your copy of Nikon D3500 For Dummies, this Cheat Sheet offers a handy reference guide. It offers a map to the camera’s exterior controls along with basic information about exposure modes and the functions played by each button, dial, and switch.Controls on your Nikon D3500 CameraIf you’re not familiar with the Nikon D3500 camera, here’s a quick guide to its buttons, dials, and other external controls.
In the P, S, A, or M exposure modes, you have control over flash power on your Nikon D3500 via two options. The first setting, Flash Compensation, also works in the Portrait, Close-up, and Night Portrait Scene modes, but only if your Nikon D3500 thinks that flash is required. Applying Flash Compensation on your Nikon D3500 When you set the Flash Control for Built-in Flash option on the Shooting menu to TTL, which is the default mode, your Nikon D3500 determines how much flash power is needed.
One basic picture-taking option to consider is whether you want to add flash to your Nikon D3500 to illuminate your subject. With the D3500, you can use the built-in flash or attach an external flash head to the hot shoe. You can add light to your Nikon's photos via the built-in flash or by attaching an external flash unit to the hot shoe.
To move pictures and movies from your Nikon D3500 to your computer, you need some type of software to download, view, and manage the files. If you don't have a favorite photo program for handling these tasks, Nikon offers the following free software solutions: Nikon ViewNX-i: Shown below, the Nikon ViewNX-i program offers basic photo organizing and editing tools.
Your Nikon D3500 will take a mean still portrait if you handle your camera correctly. By still portrait, this means that your subject isn’t moving. Assuming you do have a subject willing to pose, the classic portrait photography approach is to keep the subject sharply focused while throwing the background into soft focus using your Nikon camera.
Your Nikon D3500 allows you to adjust the shutter speed to take action shots. Using a fast shutter speed is the key to capturing a blur-free shot of any moving subject with your Nikon D3500, whether it’s a flower in the breeze, a spinning Ferris wheel, or, as you see below, a racing cyclist. Use high shutter speeds to capture action with your Nikon D3500.
Because you may vary which Nikon lens you are using, the following does not contain full instructions on every Nikon lens operation. But the following list provides general information on working with standard AF-P and AF-S Nikon lenses. You should explore the lens manual for specifics, of course, but keep reading for general tips on using a lens with your Nikon D3500.
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